Returning to the Beloved Community: Compassion Fatigue, Lay Leadership, and the ‘PTSD’ of the Pandemic

A Free Online Learning Event for Lay Leaders, Clergy, and Laity with Micheal Pope and Schuyler Rhodes

DATE: Saturday, November 13, 2021
TIME: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST
PRESENTERS: Micheal Pope and the Rev. Schuyler Rhodes

What has been the impact of COVID-19 and more than a year of lockdown on our mental, social, spiritual, and physical health? What strategies can laity in leadership adopt to help us move through this continuing time of change?

Disrupted routines have created new challenges for church communities and their leadership. Research has shown that individuals across the planet are experiencing compassion fatigue and PTSD from 18 months of constant change and uncertainty. Both laity and clergy are struggling from a lack of routine and normal social experiences.

Presenters Micheal Pope, California-Nevada Lay Leader, and Rev. Schuyler Rhodes, former District Superintendent from the Cal-Nevada Conference will review the unusual multiple stresses of our time and what we can all do to recover/maintain until we are on the other side of the pandemic.

Micheal Pope is the CEO of ASEB (Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay), motivational speaker and, podcast show host. Pope joined ASEB in January 1997 and has held numerous positions over her last 24 years at ASEB. She is also the past board president of the East Bay Foundation on Aging.

Pope has over 35 years in health care management, with an emphasis in community engagement, enhancing the organizations fundraising and outreach programs with her ability to touch people and passion for making the world a better place for seniors. She has a special place for those seniors and their caregivers living with memory loss. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Southern New Hampshire University, has done course work in City Planning and Urban Affairs at Boston University, and Theological/Social Justice studies at Fuller.

Pope is currently lay leader at Concord United Methodist Church where she co-pastors a service for individuals living memory loss. Pope was appointed Conference Lay Leader for the California/Nevada Conference of the Methodist Denomination in 2016. She has a love for learning. Pope holds a seat on the Community Advisory Board-African American Study on Dementia at UCSF. She is also a member of the Alameda County Council for Age Friendly Communities. Pope serves as member of the Long Term Care Steering Committee, Service Review Advisory Committee/East Bay Paratransit, and is a member of the Board of Writer Coach in Oakland, an organization that supports Oakland High School Students.

Pope is the host of a podcast on BlogTalk Radio titled “Life is a Sacred Journey” and recipient of the 2020 Harry Denman Evangelism Award from the Foundation for Evangelism. She is also the co-author of Life is a Journey We Know by Heart, a book that pays tribute to elders living with Alzheimer’s. Family is extremely important to her and you can often find her sharing photographs of her family gatherings. She is also a dog whisperer! Alpha and Daisy are two dogs that have found their forever home with Pope. She thanks them for slowing her down at the end of each day.

The Rev. Schuyler Rhodes is a retired pastor from the California-Nevada annual conference. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Potsdam and his Master of Divinity with honors from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Pastor Rhodes has also carried on graduate studies in Literature and Criticism at State University of New York at Albany, and in Liberation Theology at Maryknoll School of Theology.

Rev. Rhodes has served churches in New York City, New Jersey, and in rural New York State. Schuyler has had extensive public speaking experience, traveling throughout Europe and the United States. He has also served as Consultant on Peace and Justice ministries to the General Board of Global Ministries Women’s Division, and served for nine years as president of the Board of Directors of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization.

Pastor Rhodes has served on the Board of Directors of the California Council of Churches and the San Francisco United Methodist Mission. He also sat on the Steering Committee of the Religious Witness with Homeless People, and the Advisory Board of the National Equal Justice Association.

Schuyler Rhodes is the author of Journey Through the Psalms, Pentecost Fire: Preaching Community in Seasons of Change, and Words to the Silence: A Book of Uncommon Prayer. He lives in Utah and is married to Lisa Quoresimo. He is also father to Emma Elizabeth and Aaron Schuyler. His spare time interests involve a love of music. Schuyler plays both guitar and mandolin. He loves spending time at the family’s mountain retreat in the Sierras, where he writes and spends time working outdoors.